Poly N-(4-chlorophenyl), poly N-(4-methylphenyl) acrylamides and the copolymer of their monomers as stabilizers for nitrocellulose

para-Methylaniline and p-chloroaniline were reacted with acryloyl chloride to produce the corresponding monomers. The two monomers were solution homopolymerized and copolymerized. The obtained homopolymers and copolymer were mixed with nitrocellulose in acetone as stabilizers under stirring to produce propellant mixes. Isothermal thermogravimetric analysis, TGA and Bergmann-Junk test were used to evaluate the efficiency of the prepared stabilizers in comparison with the classical stabilizer, diphenyl diethyl urea. Differential scanning colorimetric (DSC) was used to estimate the activation energy of nitrocellulose decomposition. It was found that the investigated polymers are generally much more efficient stabilizers than diphenyl diethyl urea and the copolymer is the best. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.